Figures released by the United Nations Aids programme show that while HIV infection rates in Africa have slowed since the start of the decade, statistics still make very grim reading on the worst affected continent – of the global total of 2.1 million deaths due to AIDS in 2007, 1.6 million were in sub-Saharan Africa.

An estimated 1.7 million people were infected with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa in 2007, compared to 2.2 million new infections in 2001. And there are now fears that progress could be knocked off course by the global financial crisis, potentially reducing the funds from Western donors for fighting the disease and providing treatment.

In a speech in a South African township this week, Michel Sidibe, the newly appointed head of the UN agency UNAIDS, noted that though "the world has a responsibility to stabilise the market failure, the same world has a moral responsibility to make sure that four million people who are on (HIV) treatment will continue to have treatment, and six million more will have access to treatment."

An official from the Global Call to Action against Poverty said recently that Kenya had already been asked by one donor to fund HIV and tuberculosis programme itself. Other donors, such as Oxfam, have said they fear the financial crisis will lead to funding cuts as developed countries have other priorities – such as saving their financial systems.

UNAIDS says it needs about $25 billion to ensure universal access to HIV treatment by 2010. It says interrupting funding could lead to millions of deaths in Africa.

Detailed figures about AIDS in Africa are rather dismal. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the region most heavily affected by HIV, accounting for more than two thirds of all people living with HIV globally. Of the global total of 2.1 million adult and child deaths due to AIDS in 2007, 1.6 million occurred in sub-Saharan Africa.

An estimated 1.7 million people were newly infected with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa in 2007, declining from 2.2 million new infections in 2001. There are currently an estimated 22.5 million people living with HIV in the region.

At the same time, South Africa, with some 5.7 million people infected with HIV, represents the world's largest AIDS epidemic. HIV prevalence in adults aged 15 to 49 is as much as 18 per cent. An estimated 500,000 people are infected each year and around 1,000 die every day from AIDS-related illnesses.

Reflecting similar trends from other countries in the region, young women in South Africa face greater risks of becoming infected than men: among 15 to 24-year-olds, they account for around 90 per cent of new HIV infections.

National adult HIV prevalence exceeded 15 percent in Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe in 2005. In Swaziland, approximately one in four adults is infected with HIV.

In Mozambique, the epidemic continues to grow; in some provinces in the central and southern zones of the country, adult HIV prevalence has reached or exceeded 20 per cent, while infections continue to increase among young people aged 15-21.

On the brighter side, most of the smaller HIV epidemics in West Africa are stable or are declining, as is the case for Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali, and Nigeria. After dropping dramatically in the 1990s, Uganda's adult HIV prevalence appears to have stabilized at 5.4 per cent.

The UNAIDS chief pointed out that tackling AIDS effectively in poor countries would be much harder if donor funding is reduced.